Amid dispute on funding elections, govt buys new fleet of cars

After announcing a shortage of funds in state coffers to finance next year’s presidential election in Benin, the government has said it nonetheless plans to purchase of a new fleet of 237 luxury vehicles. The head of the Finance Ministry’s equipment and logistics service, Roland Zinzindohoue, said last week that the new tax-free vehicles - Mitsubishis, four-wheel drive Pajeros and Peugeots - were being purchased at 80 percent of cost as they had been used during the France-Africa summit that took place in the Malian capital Bamako, 2 to 4 December. The almost-factory-new fleet would thus cost Benin 2.89 billion CFA francs (US $5.3 million), allowing the government to partially update its fleet of 1,650 vehicles at a saving of 621 million CFA francs (US $1.1 million). In comparison, presidential elections scheduled to take place in March 2006 are expected to cost the country 32.5 billion CFA francs (US $59 million), an amount Benin simply does not have, according to a statement in parliament last month by Finance Minister Cosme Sehlin. Sehlin said the country was in the red due to a lingering economic crisis aggravated by hiking oil prices, a fall in cotton prices, the country’s main export, and the burden of caring for more than 20,000 refugees from political tension in neighbouring Togo. But in a rare development on Wednesday this week, staff at the Finance Ministry countered the minister’s claim of empty coffers, saying that although the year had not ended, 80 percent of government revenues had been collected. The secretary-general of the ministry’s staff union, Laurent Metognon, issued details of customs, income tax and treasury revenue amounting to 296 billion CFA francs, indicating that the collection of monies due to the state was on target and the coffers far from empty. “The elections are a sovereign expenditure and a priority, given the resources in hand, the elections can be held on schedule,” he said. Unlike the heads of states of regional neighbours Chad, Burkina Faso and Gabon, President Mathieu Kerekou has agreed to comply with the existing constitution and step down next March when his second mandate expires. But the sudden talk of a cash crunch is whipping up fears that this gesture of democracy could crumble. Maxime Houedjissin, who heads the opposition Republican Party that unveiled the government plan to buy more cars, said the holding of the elections was a national priority. “The state has chosen to buy vehicles although the National Election Commission (CENA) cannot find the money to organise the March 2006 poll,” he said. “Today the organisation of the elections is the most important thing,” he added. “And curiously none of the new vehicles are to be attributed to the CENA.” This was not the first time Benin had taken advantage of an international summit to replenish state equipment, Zinzindohoue said. In 2001 the government bought 131 vehicles used at a France-Africa summit in Yaounde, Cameroon. Commenting on the organisation of the poll at parliamentary question time in November, Finance Minister Sehlin said government books were in the red to the tune of US $57 million, with no means of raising the US $59 million more to pay for the elections. “The budget is already in a deficit of 32.1 billion CFA [US $57m] and we have been unable to identify sources of funding. Add to this the cost of presidential elections in March 2006, this budget deficit will worsen to 64.7 billion CFA [US $115 million],” said Sehlin. Sehlin did not rule out the possibility of a delay in the electoral calendar, as a result of the economic crisis. But the parliamentary speaker, Antoine Kolawole Idji, who has said he will run for election, responded that there will be “no postponement in the 2006 election.” After Sehlin’s warning, the European Union offered to help fund the ballot to the tune of four billion CFA francs. One-time coup leader turned elected president, Kerekou won his second consecutive term in office in 2002 and under the constitution cannot stand for a third term in office in March. Marking his difference with other regional heads of state, the septuagenarian president has said he will not change the terms of the constitution but will step down. A postponement of the poll would leave Benin in constitutional limbo as there is no provision for failure of elections due to a lack of cash - only the death or deposition of the incumbent president.